Drivers on today's roads are faced with the problem of a blind spot. This causes many drivers to get into accidents, e.g., because they switch lanes and are hit by a vehicle travelling in their blind spot.
In spite of having a plurality of mirrors there are usually areas, known as blind spots, which are not covered by the mirrors. Very often, the blind spots cover space to the left and right sides as well as directly behind the vehicle. The position of side and rear view mirrors can reduce the side blind spots. However, it is impossible to eliminate all blind spots with mirror adjustment. The exact area varies depending on the type of vehicle and height of driver.
The work that has been done to solve the blind spot problem is directed towards developing blind spot monitoring systems that will alert the driver of vehicles present in their own blind spots.
There is also known an image generation apparatus, as described in US patent application US 2007/0009137, comprising one or more camera units installed on a first body. The camera units are used for capturing the image around the first body. The image generation apparatus further comprises a blind spot calculation unit for calculating blind spot information of a second body. Examples of the second body include a vehicle, but also a pedestrian, building, etc. Further, the blind spot information consists in data representing a zone that is a blind spot for the driver. The blind spot information is displayed to driver of the first body.
Nevertheless, the known methodologies have a number of drawbacks. They require image transmission systems having a sufficient quality for the user to perceive a clear picture, which requires working with a high number of pixels. There must be space in the passenger compartment to be able to accommodate the corresponding screen. They are, therefore, expensive systems, which are not easy to use in situations of risk. Moreover, they don't process the image but only transmit it. The vehicle's driver has to visually view every surrounding vehicle, which may be time consuming and dangerous, especially when there are several second vehicles.